Shedding
Installations: A metaphor for loss
By Haleh Niazmand
May 29, 2003
The Iranian
On exhibit May 22- June 22, 2003
Day of Dialogue: June 22, 4:00- 5:30 p.m.
Gallery Subversive
Cherry Building, 320 11th Ave. SE, Suite B23
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
ph. 319. 431.4858
... Those who profess to favor freedom and yet
depreciate agitation want crops without plowing the ground.
- Fredrick Douglass
Shedding is a metaphor for loss. In reality, wars
have no winners. Victories declared only point to the cowardice
of the perpetrators of government-sanctioned violence who deliberately
omit the news of children, women and men suffering their criminal
actions.
As the empty rhetoric of "patriotism" drowns
out dissenting voices, and while our fundamental rights to freedom
of speech and assembly are branded "un-American", I make
art that is about what undermines our ability to coexist conscientiously
and in peace.
Shedding is my experience as an Iranian who witnessed
the pains of a country oppressed by the Shah's US-backed dictatorship,
who endured the long years of Iran-Iraq war when US-made missiles
launched from Iraq -- then an American "friend" -- delivered
explosions that killed and maimed our loved ones daily, who has
lived in exile to get away from the brutality of the present fundamentalist
regime in Iran that capitalizes on the popular opposition to the
interventionist practices of the US and the West to justify its
brutality.
Shedding is my voice as a woman who believes that
all life is sacred and that the patriarchal world domination has
always failed us and must be replaced. Shedding is my plight as
a citizen of the USA, remembering that this colorful world of immigrants
was constructed through sinful violence against the native inhabitants
of the land and through a history of slavery and exploitation.
To live, we must allow the idealism of "life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all" bloom, and accept
nurturing and cooperation as the principles of our national and
global survival.
Shedding is not a response to the recent war on Iraq
alone. It is a tribute to the people of Japan, China, Korea, Guatemala,
Indonesia, Cuba, Congo, Peru, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor,
Chile, Grenada, Libya, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Sudan, Yugoslavia,
Afghanistan, Palestine and all the other places where blood has
been shed under the cloak of liberty, security and national interest.
May love, peace and kindness be our guiding light
>>> See
exhibit
In acknowledgment that our government owes the
victims of its wars reparation, please make
a financial contribution to Iraqi relief.
* Send
this page to your friends
|
